19-Year-Old Shot After Not Paying Bus Fare Killed Himself? So They Say

An interesting turn of events has taken place in a fatal police shooting last week of a 19-year-old boy in San Francisco, who was being chased down for allegedly not paying his bus fare. What was originally said to be an unlawful act by police (according to several witnesses), is now being classified as a possible suicide.

According to several news reports, the bullet that killed 19-year-old Kenneth Wade Harding was not one used by SFPD.

Chief San Francisco Medical Examiner Amy Hart said the office's preliminary findings show that Harding was struck by two bullets, one that entered and exited his left leg and one that entered his neck and lodged in his head.

The bullet that entered Harding's head, apparently killing him, was a .380-caliber bullet, Hart said. But San Francisco police officers use .40-caliber ammunition, said Commander Mike Biel, and .380-caliber bullets cannot be fired from department-issued weapons.

To make things more complicated, the gun seized by police as being the gun allegedly used by Harding, does not appear to be the same one Harding fired, hence, no weapon has yet been found.